Fish and the Ring

There was once a very rich baron who lived at Whitby in North Yorkshire. He was a very clever man and famous for casting horoscopes. Whenever there was a ball held at his castle, he delighted and entertained his guests by foretelling their futures, and he would always say, "what is in the stars is your fate, you may as well accept it, for no one can change fate." He said this not just to impress but because he believed it.

One day, his young son put down his toys and went to his father. "What shall I be when I grow up?" The baron was very pleased and proud that his son should ask. He swept the little boy up into his arms and carried him to an armchair, then he sat down with his son on his knee. A great book lay on the table by the chair, and the baron opened it near the middle. He pointed out various signs and symbols and went on to tell the boy some of the events that would come to pass over the years. Suddenly, the baron put the boy down from his knee, "go and play outside in the garden." A shadow passed over his face and he looked again at the open page.

The baron foretold that one day his son would marry a poor ragged girl born just a few days earlier in a house near the Great Minster Cathedral in the city of York. He ordered that a horse be saddled and brought to the door. As soon as it was ready, he mounted it and galloped off to York. When he arrived, he pulled up the lathered horse in front of the western bar gate. There, on the front step of an old house was a man singing to a crying infant. He looked very sad. "What's the matter, my good man?" The man doffed his woollen cap, (and lowered his eyes), "If it please you sir, my wife and I already have five children, and now this little lass has come along. I couldn't feed the others without going hungry myself, and now I don't know what I'll do." He wept softly and held the new baby closer. (The baron smiled at the poor man.) "I may be able to help, there is a couple on my estate who are childless and I have long been on the lookout for a baby they could adopt. If you were to give me this girl, I am sure they would be very happy to give her a good life." The poor man was delighted at the prospect and after speaking with his wife, they kissed the little lass goodbye and handed her over to the baron.

The baron turned his horse and rode away from the city. When he was well out of sight, he looked to make sure no one was watching him, then he flung the poor little girl into the River Ouse. "That's an end to that", and he trotted off back to his castle. Now, as luck would have it, air was trapped in the baby’s shawl and she floated slowly downstream in the current, until she was spotted by a fisherman sitting on the riverbank mending his nets. He picked up the bilge pole, which stood by his front door, and managed to hook her shawl. When he got the baby safely ashore he was very angry. "What kind of monster would do such a thing to a helpless child!" Then he hurried indoors to his wife and she dried off the lass and wrapped her warmly in a blanket. From that day on they raised her as their own daughter.

Now it happened many years later that the baron was out hunting deer in the woods near the River Ouse. He stopped at the fisherman's hut to ask for a drink of water, which the girl, grown up and very beautiful, brought out to him. The rest of the men in the hunting party teased the girl and embarrassed her by saying how pretty she was. One of the men stepped forward, "let's have her horoscope then, let's see who will be lucky enough to marry this pretty young thing". The baron replied, "no doubt she will marry a fisherman, but tell me girl what day were you born on?" "I don't know sir, I was picked out of the river one day by my father some fifteen years ago." At once the baron knew who she was and his face turned ghostly white. He made up a horoscope to tell the other men, then he went into the hut. A few minutes later he returned, "here girl, take this letter to my brother in Scarborough and it will make your fortune." Then he mounted his horse and the party rode off.

The girl was very excited to know that her fortune would be made simply by delivering the letter. A little later she said goodbye to her parents and set off to walk to Scarborough, but by then it was quite late in the day. The girl found that the sun began to set before she was half way there. She was scared to continue in the dark so she stopped at an inn and found a room for the night.

Just as she was falling asleep, there was a great noise downstairs. "I’ll give you all two minutes to come down." They were being robbed, men had forced their way into the inn and were stealing everything they could lay their hands on. They searched the girl but found nothing except the letter, which the leader of the robbers immediately opened. To his surprise, this is what he read, ‘Brother, take this girl and put her to death at once.’ Well, the robber thought this a great shame, so he altered the letter to read, ‘brother, take this girl and marry her to my son at once.’

So, of course, when the girl finally arrived at Scarborough the baron's brother had the two young people married without delay, and they were both very happy. As soon as the baron found out he made his way to the town and took the girl for a walk along the cliffs. His intention was to push her over, but she guessed it and begged him not to kill her. "I don't know what I have done to make you hate me so, sir, but if you spare my life I will do anything you ask." "You must go away and never see his son again." She promised, then to bind her oath, he took his gold ring from his finger and cast it as far as he could over the cliff into the cold sea. "You may return when you have recovered that ring!" Then he walked back to his brother's castle. The young girl was in tears, for by this time she had fallen deeply in love with the baron's son. She walked slowly away from the cliff, and from Scarborough.

After a while she found a job in the kitchen of another castle in Hartlepool. There she became a wonderful cook, and everyone who ate her food said it was the best they had ever tasted. A year and a day after she last saw them, she heard that the baron and his son were to visit the castle where she worked, she decided to make them the best meal she had ever created. She took up a sharp knife and ran it through the enormous cod which lay on the kitchen table, as she cleaned it out, she was both surprised and delighted to find the very ring the baron had cast over the cliff. She placed it in her pocket and proceeded to cook the best fish dish anyone had ever eaten.

It was the custom then to call out the cook whenever the dish was exceptionally good. But when the baron and his company saw the girl, they were speechless. The baron glared and was about to remind her of the promise she made, when she stepped up to the table and dropped the ring right before him. "I believe this belongs to you, sir." The baron then realized that what he had said all those years ago was indeed true, even he could not change fate. He stood up and took her hand. "This is my son's true wife and if she will consent to come home with us, I will try my best to make amends for all my wrong doing." And the baron kept his word. The baron's son took his young wife back to their castle in Whitby and there they lived a long and happy life.